


the sun breaks through

by Iki_teru



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 22:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5982481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>everyone has to meet somewhere. this is a little peek into how Selphie met Kairi for the first time (and twice more, after Kairi has gone away and returned and the way things shifted between them each time.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the sun breaks through

**Author's Note:**

> back in Dec '14 I foolishly thought I was going to get back into writing hard and fast and asked for prompts. One of them was "selphie and kairi's first meeting" I expanded upon it a little bit, partly out of guilt for taking over a year to get to this (can you believe I've actually had this pretty much written in my head since it was issued? I'm terrible I know.)  
> Title ripped from a Fruits Basket song, Serenade. Also the song I listened to the entire time I wrote this.

Nobody actually remembers exactly how Kairi got to the islands. Not even Kairi can remember, or at least she says but there's something in the corner of her smile that makes Selphie suspect she knows more than she says.

They were all so little when Kairi arrived. Looking back there is a clear definition: these were the years before Kairi and this is everything After. Everyone argues about the day they met her. Sora swears for  _ years _ that he actually fished her from the sea, caught her on the end of his hook and reeled her in. Everyone thinks he's joking and it isn't until they are in their early twenties that they realize he's dead serious, this is the way he remembers it.

 

Selphie remembers it was a Tuesday. Because Tuesday had been, was still in fact, library day. And she met Kairi there on the steps of the library. It went like this: 

Mama always let Selphie walk down to the library on her own. It's just down the hill and she called ahead to the librarian to let her know that yes, Selphie is on her way. It's embarrassing but a couple of weeks before Selphie got distracted because Garnet down the way had a new puppy and Selphie had stopped to say hi and pet him and maybe see how well he fetched the sticks they would throw for him (the answer, it turned out, was very well indeed.) Mama had gotten worried and the librarian had gotten worried and eventually a police officer had come and found her. Now Mama called the librarian and Selphie was to go straight there, check in at the desk so the librarian could call Mama and then repeat the process when she decided to leave.

Selphie loves the library. It's one of the biggest buildings on the island, bigger even than the school, with a rattly old air conditioner in one of the windows that has to work too hard during the summer just to keep the worst of the damp out of the air. Selphie has read all the books in her grade level, has begged the librarian for the harder chapter books. It wasn't an easy battle and in the end there was a  _ test _ involved- even though it was summer, even though Selphie's homeroom teacher would gladly have told the librarian that the longer chapter books aren't too hard for her.

She can read about two a week. Almost three if it's a slow week or a rainy week; when all the kids get trapped inside and the boys start going a little stir crazy and mean and prone to breaking things (well, Sora tends to be prone to breaking things even when he's not cooped up inside. Mama says it's because he has to grow into his feet and until he does he'll be tripping over them every day.) She'll read one of her books out loud to them on those days. It makes everyone, even Riku and Tidus, calm down and be quiet and stop knocking blitzballs off the side of the living room walls. Selphie agonizes over her book choices, one just for her and one for all of them, in case the weather turns bad. It's hard to tell during the summer; the storms come out of nowhere, darkening the sky and rattling the windows faster than you can blink. Selphie hopes it doesn't rain, they have a scavenger hunt planned later during the week and nothing sours a summer day than having plans that have to be cancelled because of inconsiderate weather.

Selphie exits the library, shielding her eyes from the bright noonday sun. She hugs the books reverently to her chest and begins the long trek down down down the library stairs. But there's too many steps and her mind is too focused on other things (that scavenger hunt, and who she wants to team up with. Sora would be fun but tearing him from Riku's side is next to impossible. Wakka isn’t so bad but he treats her like a baby. Tidus would be absolute  _ torture _ ) and her feet aren't too big for her, she's just a clumsy little thing. One foot slips and then the other and then she's stumbling, tumbling, falling. The books are airborne and she's trying to catch herself on the stair below her, on the stair below that, on anything to stop the fall.

She catches herself on a girl. Or rather the girl catches her. Selphie has never seen her before, catches a glimpse of red hair burnished gold in the bright light and a smattering of freckles and a missing front tooth and eyes the color of the ocean and open arms and a voice calling out "don't worry, I got you!" before she does, in fact, get her.

They both fall in a jumble of limbs and Selphie bites her tongue, tastes blood, hears the books come back to earth heavily behind them. She scrambles off the other girl with a cry of "your knee!" at the same time the girl says "your books!"

The girl introduces herself as Kairi as she helps Selphie gather the books, assuring the librarian at the top of the stairs that everyone is okay. Dimly Selphie realizes this must be the girl staying at the mayor's place. Mama had mentioned something about it the other day- had paced the kitchen and pursed her lips and said something like  _ Poor dear _ and told Selphie that when she finally met the girl to be kind to her.  _ She's a long way from her home _ . Selphie looked at Kairi and wondered if there was ever anyone who couldn't be kind to that open face.

Kairi handed her back one of the books, the one Selphie had picked for herself. It had a young girl on the cover, a hand curled in the mane of a unicorn. "Is that any good?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know yet," said Selphie without hesitation. "Would you like to read it with me and find out?"

Kairi smiled and it was so bright and so open and honest that it shamed the noon sun, forcing it to hide behind a stray cloud ( _ honest _ , Selphie will say years later when she retells this story.). "Would I ever!"

  
  


Years spin out and away and the affection is still there but Kairi is distant now, tied to whatever she's cooking up with Sora and Riku. Selphie is a little sad about that, a little disappointed at being left out but she grins and bears it as long as Kairi is happy. Then the morning comes when she finds Kairi standing on the beach, shoulders stiff and eyes suspiciously dry. She's slow to answer Selphie's call, slow in her movement, like every second of existing is costing her something and she blinks at Selphie. Selphie wants to cry for her, for the look she sees there in her friend's face. Kairi won’t talk about it for months, and when she does they’ve just started to lose memories. Her expression is tight and confused and she won’t look at Selphie as she tells her story, speaks as if the ocean is her only audience. 

Selphie can do nothing but hold Kairi’s hand, squeezing when her friend’s voice trails off, trying to anchor her to the here and now. It’s not enough, it could never be enough but eventually Kairi’s words even back out and it’s less like pulling something from her, more like spreading the weight of the events out between them. Kairi still carries the brunt of it, but she’s leaning against Selphie by the end and her smile looks less pained.

 

(We slide forward again)

She didn't even know Kairi was missing this time, so it’s more than a little shocking to hear the happy shrieks of laughter coming from down the beach. She watches, frozen as Kairi comes stumbling through the surf with Riku on one arm and Sora on the other. Kairi’s smiling bigger than she has in recent memory and Selphie thinks  _ oh _ and feels fit to burst. Kairi looks over at the dock. Their eyes meet and Selphie doesn’t  _ mean  _ to jump down but her legs seem to have a mind of their own and sand is already sticking to her legs as she stumbles her way to her friend. 

Her foot catches and she skips, trying to right herself but the other foot bumbles along with the first and she’s going to eat a mouthful of sand when a familiar freckled arm reaches out for her. Kairi laughs and it’s the best sound in the entire world. As soon as Selphie can catch her breath she plans to say as much. But Kairi taps the spine of the book held in Selphie’s death grip (she forgot she had brought it, that she planned on curling up against the paopu tree today with a novel and pretending the little play island could offer her echoes of her lost friends.) 

“Is that any good?” 

“I don’t know,” Selphie hiccups. She’s not crying, she’s  _ not _ , there’s just too much ocean in the air and it’s stinging her eyes. “Wanna read with me and find out?” 

If Selphie thought Kairi’s smile had been radiant from down the beach she’s perfectly unprepared for the full brilliance of it up close. “Would I ever!” 


End file.
